When our Sun was a young star, 4.56 billion years ago, what is now our solar system was just a disk of rocky dust and gas. Over tens of millions […]
Caltech
Posted inAstrochemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Enceladus, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Press Release, Saturn, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
A New Way To Characterize Habitable Planets
For decades, science fiction authors have imagined scenarios in which life thrives on the harsh surfaces of Mars or our Moon, or in the oceans below the icy surfaces of […]
Posted inAstrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Impact events, Moon, Press Release
Mysterious Giant Blobs Of Material Near Earth’s Core
In the 1980s, geophysicists made a startling discovery: two continent-sized blobs of unusual material were found deep near the center of the Earth, one beneath the African continent and one […]
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Meteorites & Asteroids, Missions & Hardware, Status Report
Complex Organosulfur Molecules On Comet 67P: Evidence From The ROSINA Measurements And Insights From Laboratory Simulations
The ROSINA (Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis) instrument aboard the Rosetta mission revolutionized our understanding of cometary material composition. One of Rosetta’s key findings is the complexity […]
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology, Mars, Missions & Hardware, Press Release
Rock Samples From The Floor of Jezero Crater Show Significant Contact With Water Together With Possible Organic Compounds
Analysis of multiple rocks found at the bottom of Jezero Crater on Mars, where the Perseverance rover landed in 2020, reveals significant interaction between the rocks and liquid water, according […]
Posted inExtremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Press Release
Bacteria That Eat Metal Discovered In Dirty Glassware
Caltech microbiologists have discovered bacteria that feed on manganese and use the metal as their source of calories. Such microbes were predicted to exist over a century ago, but none […]
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Press Release
Otherworldly Worms With Three Sexes Discovered In Mono Lake
Caltech scientists have discovered a new species of worm thriving in the extreme environment of Mono Lake. This new species, temporarily dubbed Auanema sp., has three different sexes, can survive […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Press Release, TRAPPIST-1
Inventing Tools for Detecting Life Elsewhere with Future Telescopes
Recently, astronomers announced the discovery that a star called TRAPPIST-1 is orbited by seven Earth-size planets. Three of the planets reside in the “habitable zone,” the region around a star […]
Posted inBiogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Press Release
Earth Life Can Be Designed To Make Silicon-Carbon Bonds
A new study is the first to show that living organisms can be persuaded to make silicon-carbon bonds–something only chemists had done before. Scientists at Caltech “bred” a bacterial protein […]
Posted inAstrochemistry, Press Release
Prebiotic Molecule Detected in Interstellar Cloud
Chiral molecules — compounds that come in otherwise identical mirror image variations, like a pair of human hands — are crucial to life as we know it. Living things are […]